The Blue to My Red
by Blue Baby Blanket
Summary: Naruto thought bringing Sasuke back sooner than he expected would be the best thing that could happen. Sasuke dating Sakura turned out to be the worst. After it leads to Naruto noticing the blue-haired girl that was there all along, it doesn't seem so bad after all. Naru/Hina


Warning: This fanfic does not just violate "show, don't tell", it drags "show, don't tell into an alley and does unspeakable things to "show, don't tell" while taking pictures to send to "show, don't tell"'s Police Commissioner father so he'll have a really bad day. Other than that, enjoy!

The Blue to My Red

Life should have been good for Uzumaki Naruto, but it was not. On his most recent mission, where his team and Team Eight worked together to find Uchiha Itachi, he ended up succeeding in keeping his promise to Sakura to bring Sasuke back. Naruto had driven off the masked member of the Akatsuki and later found his former team-mate, who was near-death along with his recently deceased older brother.

Watching Sakura, who Naruto still had feelings for, pour her heart out over his rival while doing her hardest to heal him was heartbreaking for him. While he had been holding out hope that whatever feelings she still had for Sasuke were just a childish crush and that she would someday truly love the blond himself, he now knew that she had and would always love only Sasuke.

Since then, Sasuke and the team he had formed had been brought to the Hidden Leaf Village. Naruto was surprised to learn that the redhead in the group was an Uzumaki like himself, but her obsession with Sasuke and great dislike of Sakura kept him and his cousin from bonding. It hurt to know that he finally found a family, only for Sasuke to keep them apart.

Naruto was beginning to understand what the last Uchiha must have felt when his older brother took their family from him. To Naruto, Sasuke was becoming to him what Itachi was to Sasuke. He should have been like a brother to him, but instead he just robbed him of the family he wished he could have had with Sakura, seemingly for no other reason than because he could.

Out of all the girls in the village that Sasuke could have chosen to be with, all those girls who believed themselves to be the future Mrs. Uchiha, it would just have to be Naruto's luck that Sakura, the one girl he thought he loved was the one to succeed. It did not matter to him that those girls would now be moving on to a more realistic goal; the only one he wanted was the one he could not have.

Now wishing to drown his sorrows but being too young to legally drink, despite the misconceptions held by misinformed civilians, Naruto instead chose to eat his sorrows away by divulging himself with ramen from his favourite restaurant; Ichiraku, the first one where the owners treated him with genuine kindness.

As Ayame served Naruto a bowl of piping hot ramen with extra pork, he decided that as long as he was wishing for things that could not be, he should wish that his first crush had been on her instead. It suddenly made a lot more sense that he should have had a crush on the pretty, older girl who was kind to him and served him delicious ramen. By now though, Ayame was so much like a big sister to him that Naruto could not think of her in a romantic sense. He hoped that whatever lucky guy ended up with her would treat her right.

Putting those thoughts aside, Naruto went back to wondering just what first attracted him to Sakura as he savoured his ramen, preferring to let it last while he dealt with his feelings. The blond tried to remember when he first met Sakura. It had been nearly a decade ago, and most of the memories from that point in his life were either too far back to recall or not worth remembering at all. Naruto could remember bits and pieces though.

At first, Sakura had been quiet and shy. She was a bit of an outcast like him, as the other girls had noticed how smart she was and tried to inflate their own self-esteem by mocking the size of Sakura's forehead to make her feel bad. Naruto had wanted to try and stand up to them, but Ino did so first. It was through Sakura's friendship with Ino that she grew out of her shell and her personality shifted to the one she had to this day.

The irony that Ino's influence on Sakura is what led the pink-haired girl to becoming Sasuke's girlfriend and future wife instead of Ino herself was not lost on Naruto, but it was still not much of a comfort to him. While Naruto certainly liked the new and boisterous Sakura, a part of him thought he could have been closer to the real Sakura, who changed herself because someone else did not like who she was.

Looking back, while Naruto thought that he and the real Sakura were similar, he and the Sakura she had become were very much alike, too much in fact. Their personalities clashed too much instead of balancing each other out as he expected they would based on their skills. He and Sakura were great as a team and would make good friends, but that was all it seemed they would be. They might not even be that anymore. Naruto was not sure he could be team-mates with Sakura and Sasuke now that they had become a couple and did not think he could continue a friendship with them either. It would be too painful for him to do so.

By this point, Naruto had finished the pork and noodles in his ramen and was stirring the cooling broth, watching the swirls in the liquid as he wondered just what attracted Sasuke to Sakura. Was it because she had healed him after his fight with Itachi and he had appreciated her growth in skill? Did he want to have pink-haired sons? Did Sasuke have a fetish for delicious flat chests and really nice butts? Or maybe, had he recognized what Naruto had; that Sakura's fake personality was a match for his own?

Naruto knew that he and Sasuke were nearly opposites in personality, so in retrospect it made sense that the fake Sakura would dislike him and like Sasuke. While Naruto thought that he and who he now considered to be the fake Sakura would have been a good couple because of how alike they were, that was not the case. They were too volatile to have worked out. Sasuke and the fake Sakura though, were different enough that they would balance each other out. He would be the one to calm her down when she was angry while Naruto would just have provoked her further. She would help Sasuke open up more while Naruto probably needed to be less exuberant.

As Naruto finished off his broth and considered getting another bowl, he thought about his new frame of mind. If he and the fake Sakura were too alike to be a couple while she and Sasuke were different enough to become one, then the ideal girlfriend for him would have to be someone the opposite of the fake Sakura.

It was an interesting thought, but Naruto was not sure if he was ready to be considering someone else. He was not sure if he was over his feelings for Sakura yet and it would not be fair to date someone until he was. Yet, he was also worried that if he did not act, he might miss out on being with someone perfect for him because he still yearned for someone he could not have.

Sighing, Naruto drank the last drop of broth from the bowl and set it down. It had been as delicious and comforting as it always was. The blond was not sure he could have dealt with his life if it was not for Ayame and her father. He silently thanked the Third Hokage and Iruka for all the times they treated him to ramen when he was younger.

"Alright Ayame, I think I'll have seconds now," Naruto said as he took out the money for a second bowl while thinking of all the pleasant memories he had eating her and her father's delicious cooking.

"Sure Naruto. You just let your big sister Ayame take care of you," she said while preparing a new bowl. "You were so quiet that I was getting worried. Are you okay?" Ayame asked as she set the now finished bowl in front of Naruto.

"I think I will be, just as long as I have my nice, big sister to keep feeding me," Naruto answered with a grin.

"That's good. Just remember, no matter what happens, you'll always be welcome here," Ayame said as she got back to serving the other customers.

Naruto was feeling better, and not just because he had another bowl of ramen in front of him. While he had been right about Ayame being too much of a sister to him for them to be a couple, he felt that by just noticing how nice and pretty she was and knowing that he should not ask her out that he was not only getting over his feelings for Sakura, but maturing as well. For the first time since he saw Sakura and Sasuke together as a couple, Naruto felt that it was not the end of his world, but the start of a much better one.

As Naruto wondered what the new world had in store for him, someone sat down on the stool next to him. He glanced over, and was surprised to see that it was Hyuuga Hinata, who he just worked alongside on his most recent life-changing mission.

"Hello Hinata," Ayame said. "It's good to see you again. Would you like your usual?"

"Yes, please," Hinata said quietly.

As Ayame then prepared what looked like Naruto's own usual, but with more vegetables, he felt quite glad to see a girl who liked ramen as much as he did if she ate enough to have a usual. He also thought it was nice that was that she was being quiet, as he had either developed a sudden dislike for loud girls or an appreciation for quiet ones.

Naruto then went back to enjoying his own bowl of ramen as Hinata was served hers. While he was still savouring his, he watched from his side as Hinata slowly ate hers as well with a grace he did not possess.

He continued to watch as petite hands carefully used the chopsticks to draw the noodles to her lips, which blew them off in such a way that Naruto felt his skin tingle at the sight. Hinata did not even make a slurping sound and she sucked the long, slender noodles into her mouth, but a much better moaning sound over their taste. Jiraiya had described to Naruto how much it excited him to see a woman eat a Popsicle once, which the blond did not understand. Seeing Hinata eat her ramen, Naruto now knew what the super-pervert meant.

The moment also had a greater meaning to Naruto. It was the first time he had thought of a girl other than Sakura in a sexual manner. He suddenly felt embarrassed, especially as Ayame had apparently noticed him watching Hinata and was winking at him while nudging at the blue-haired girl. It was if as Ayame was telling Naruto to go for it, since he was unlikely to find another girl who liked ramen as much as he did.

Naruto had asked out Sakura countless times and never felt the same kind of pressure he did now. Maybe it was because he subconsciously knew that Sakura would always turn him down, so he never felt the pain of rejection as badly as he should have. For some reason though, the idea of Hinata rejecting him made him nervous.

He thought back all the times he had interacted with her. At first, he had made the mistake of writing her off as a weird girl instead of getting to know her better. Naruto learned of the troubles Hinata faced in her clan, which seemed not unlike those he faced with the village as a whole, when she fought her cousin Neji during the preliminaries of the Chunin exams. Although he had beaten some sense into Neji, Naruto had never followed up with Hinata after he did so. Between missions and his own problems, Naruto did not have the time to even notice her. Aside from the current moment, their last mission was the most time they had spent together.

Naruto thought of himself as a friendly person and someone who had many friends, but it was not until that moment that he realized who his real friends were. The ones he thought were his closest friends only really cared about themselves. Sasuke, who he thought was his best friend, was someone who belittled him, twice tried to kill him and after taking away the girl he loved, made Naruto understand there were pains worse than death.

Looking back, Naruto had many friends that he neglected because of his obsession with Sakura and Sasuke. Iruka was like a big brother to him while Konohamaru and Inari looked up to Naruto himself as a big brother. He understood the pain Gaara felt better than anyone, Shikamaru had been beside him during some of his most traumatic experiences of the Chunin exam, and either Lee or Neji would make for a great sparring partner.

Sasuke had once told Naruto that he was letting his focus on bringing him back keep him from attaining his goal of becoming Hokage. Sasuke had been right. Naruto decided that from that point on, he would no longer let either Sakura or Sasuke keep him from his goals. He would be Hokage and he would stop neglecting his true friends, starting with someone who should have been one.

Naruto and Hinata had both finished their ramen by that point. He had been in quiet contemplation but was unsure why she had stayed. The blond was glad she did though. It gave him an opportunity to get to know her better. The problem he now had was how to approach her. Normally when he asked Sakura out for a date, he would ask her to have ramen with him. Hinata had just finished a bowl, so asking her out on a date to the restaurant they had just finished eating at did not seem right. Unsure of what to do, he decided to try what Jiraiya would normally ask a woman after they finished a meal together.

"Hey Hinata," Naruto asked, getting the blue-haired girl's attention, "want to go back to my place?"

Hinata then turned completely red, and fainted.

"Hey, Hinata! Are you okay?" Naruto asked as he caught her before she collapsed on the floor.

"Naruto, what happened?" Ayame asked as she came by, too busy with the other customers to have seen what occurred between him and Hinata.

"I think Hinata is sick. She got really red and then fainted," Naruto explained. "Actually, I think I've seen this happen to her a couple of times before."

Ayame made a "hmm" noise as she thought about the situation before smiling gently.

"I think Hinata will be fine," Ayame said. "Still, why don't you take her out back to the break room. She can rest there while you look after her."

"Okay, I'll do that," Naruto said as he picked up Hinata and carried her bridal style. "Thanks Ayame!"

Naruto then proceeded to carry Hinata out back to the break room, where he set her down on a cot. Feeling her forehead, he noted she was still warm so he soaked a cloth in cold water and placed it on her forehead.

The blond was still concerned that Hinata may have been too warm still so he began to unzip her jacket. As he saw what the jacket was concealing though, Naruto began to feel hot himself as he quickly zipped it back up. While he was glad that no-one else saw that, the embarrassment he felt was his first clue that Hinata's current condition may not have been due to an illness. It made him all the more eager to speak with her once she awoke.

As the minutes passed, Naruto watched Hinata as she rested. Her body temperature slowly lowered and he breathing became more relaxed. Naruto was able to remove the cloth he had placed on her forehead and dry it off. As he watched Hinata sleep, Naruto noted how peaceful and calm she looked, especially when compared to Sakura. The more he watched the blue-haired girl sleep, the more the blond that she did indeed look rather cute.

Really cute in fact, with a hot body as well, but Naruto tried not to think of that too much. He wanted to get to know Hinata for her big heart and not her big breasts. Now that he was not so preoccupied with Sakura, he was surprised he had not noticed either sooner.

Just as Naruto was trying to talk himself out of taking another peek, Hinata began to awake. The blond, who was quick to avert his gaze to her eyes, noted how she quickly took stock of her surroundings, and appeared slightly nervous to be alone with him. At least now Naruto had some understanding of why she felt that way. He was feeling nervous as well, as he was unsure of how to go about asking Hinata out.

"Are you feeling better, now?" Naruto asked to break the tension.

"I, I'm fine," Hinata said, shyly.

There was an awkward pause between the two then. For a moment, Naruto was worried that it would always be like that between them, but he knew it was probably because they just had not interacted with each other much. As they spent more time together and grew accustomed to one another, Naruto believed that they should become much more relaxed with one another.

The first step towards reaching that state was for him to ask her out. Luckily they had a common interest that worked in his favour.

"Ayame said you had a usual. You must come her often then, right?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, I come by, sometimes," Hinata replied, a little less soft then before.

"That's great! I've never met a girl who likes ramen, except for Ayame. But she works here. So, do you want to join me for ramen here tomorrow night? I never get to see you except for when we have a mission together. So, what do you say?" Naruto asked.

Hinata, who had been avoiding eye-contact with Naruto, looked up at him in surprise at his request. Her lips trembling, she just barely managed to squeak out a "yes" in reply and began to smile. The sight warmed Naruto's heart.

"Great, it's a date!" Naruto declared, feeling happier than he had in days.

That was when Hinata's brain and body finally realized what had happened, and she fainted again. Naruto's fight or flight instincts had already activated, as years of trying to ask Sakura out had conditioned him to run as soon as she would have agreed to prevent her from backing out, so he caught her instantly. Hinata's fainting habit did not bother him much, as the blond was sure she would get over it in time. That, and he was sure he would grow to like holding the blue-haired girl as he watched her sleep.

Break

_ Several days Later, in the aftermath of Nagato's attack on the Hidden Leaf Village..._

As Naruto was carried by Kakashi back to the ruins of the village following Nagato's sacrifice, all that he could think of was his blue-haired girlfriend. Seeing Hinata cut down before him after not only being the only person in the village to defend him while he was pinned down by the Deva Path's chakra rods, but after confessing her love for him had sent him into a nearly unstoppable rage.

It was only meeting with the imprint of his father that allowed Naruto to regain his control. Minato's timely appearance gave his son an outlet for the anguish he felt while the joy of learning that his personal hero was also his own father boosted Naruto's wounded spirit.

Upon reawakening, the relief he felt upon being told by Katsuya that Hinata had survived was unlike anything Naruto had felt to that point. Sasuke had once told Naruto that he would never understand what the Uchiha had because he could not experience it for himself. The blond thought that seeing someone he saw as a brother take away what he thought was his family and the death of his mentor would be the worst pains he would ever feel, but neither came close to seeing Hinata almost die right before his eyes as he was helpless to save her.

Even though Naruto had not spent nearly as much time with Hinata as he did with his team-mates or Jiraiya, he felt he was growing closer to he than he had been with them. He had seen himself becoming closer to her, much closer to her than to anyone else, only to see that future of them together erased in an instant. It felt to him as if he had raised to the top of a pedestal over the world, but only so he could come crashing down that much harder.

The next time Naruto heard Sasuke say something like that again, he swore to punch the Uchiha in the face. As for Sakura, knowing that it was due to her actions that Hinata was saved was another source of relief for Naruto. He had been unsure that he could continue to work alongside or even stay friends with her, but the gratitude he felt towards Sakura erased those fears.

It was Kakashi being the one to carry Naruto back to the village that reminded the blond that he could not sense the man's chakra upon his return to the village, yet he was now alive and well, all due to Nagato's sacrifice. If Hinata had not survived due to Sakura's intervention, Naruto may have sought revenge against Nagato, still leading to his death but causing the other casualties to remain as such.

Now that they were much closer to the village, Kakashi set Naruto down so that he could walk the remaining distance under his own power. As they took those last steps, they slowly began to see what was awaiting them outside the ruins of the village.

Standing there before them was the entire populous of the village, cheering for their Hero. It was everything Naruto had wanted ever since he had first been told just the meaning of being the Hokage, but at that moment, with the entire village before him, there was only one person that mattered to him. As if by instinct, he sought her out, passing by a conflicted looking Sakura. In a matter of moments, an exhausted Naruto found a new source of strength that allowed him to find one person among a crowd of thousands, run to her and hold that person in his arms as tight as he could, as if he never wanted to let go.

As Naruto looked down upon a mop of blue hair pressed into his chest, his arms moved from behind Hinata's back so his hands could reach her face and slowly tilt it upward to meet his gaze. As they looked into each others eyes, the relief Naruto felt from Hinata's survival turned to joy over being able to hold her in his arms. Laughing for what felt like the first time in a long time, Naruto picked up Hinata from under her arms and swung her around in a circle, eliciting only a minor "eep" from her.

As he set her down, Naruto began to stare back into Hinata's eyes. He had once thought that Sakura's green eyes were pretty, but Hinata's were even more special because now he knew of the love Hinata held for him that came with her gaze. While he was not yet ready to return the sentiment, he felt it was only a matter of time before he would.

Although they had been on a few dates before, Naruto had felt unable to be intimate with Hinata. The closest he came was holding her hand as he walked her home. To him, Hinata was still pure and it was like her was tainting her just by being in his presence. The thought of Sakura being with Sasuke was unbearable to him, so while he was with Hinata, there was a nagging doubt in his mind that someone felt the same to her that he did towards Sakura. Naruto was well aware of how he felt about the Uchiha. It was an understatement to say that he did not like the idea of someone feeling that way towards him for being with Hinata in a way they could not. It was like he was stealing an experience from someone who deserved or wanted it more.

As Naruto held Hinata in his arms though, as he stared at the person who professed her love for him, those lingering doubts were erased. It was her choice of who she wanted to be wit h and she had always wanted him. Hinata was as much his as a person could belong to another and he hoped it would always be that way. With that in mind, Naruto's eyes slowly closed as he tilted his head down and to the side, allowing his lips to meet with Hinata's for their first kiss of what would be many to come, and likely not the last to happen in front of a cheering village.

There was only one person not cheering. Although she wished she was crying tears of joy for Naruto's new-found happiness, Sakura was crying over the happiness she had lost with both of her team-mates. It was only the day before that Sasuke has broken up with her. He thought she had become a strong woman based on her interactions with Naruto, but when she was with the Uchiha she had lost her fiery spark that it seemed only their blond team-mate could ignite. It was that spark that drew Sasuke to her, and without it, his attraction waned until it was gone. That same spark was also what finally forced Naruto away and drew him to Hinata.

Seeing Naruto happy with Hinata was fine for Sakura though. The pink-haired girl had been too harsh to him. Sakura thought she would have likely punched Naruto in the gut over risking his life to save everyone before pulling him into an embrace as a thanks for doing so. He deserved someone better. A part of Sakura still wished it could have been her holding Naruto in front of the entire village, but she knew she lost that chance and it would be terrible of her to hope otherwise.

The night Sasuke had broken up with her, it was Ino who found a crying Sakura and been there for her. Even after everything that had happened between them, Ino was still there to be her friend. The pink-haired girl had not lost everything, but she had come far too close to doing so. In time, she was sure that she too would get better and find her happy ending, just as Naruto and Hinata had already found theirs.

The End

Author's Note: This story was inspired by the "Red Oni, Blue Oni" trope and how it pertained to the cast of Naruto. The characterizations for everyone in this fanfic were based on their descriptions from tvtropes' page for that particular trope and not based on my own opinions at all.

This is also the first new thing I have posted in months. My inspiration for Naruto fanfics is at an all time low, but my gamerscore is getting higher.


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